There are plenty of different enemy types inDungeons & Dragons. Whether it be from the pages of the Monster Manual or one of the various modules released for players to run though, the monsters you can have an adventuring party run into during a campaign are as diverse as the people that play D&D in the first place.
One of the many archetypes of monsters that you can run as a DM is the fiend. Dark and mysterious creatures, you’re sure to have heard of them, or even run across them in a campaign, but they have a surprising amount of detail. If this is your first time running them, it can help to get an idea of what’s in store for you. Even if you’ve run them a handful of times, it never hurts to get some new ideas to better fit a monster into your campaign. Especially something as varied as fiends.
10Know Your Fiends
All Shapes And Sizes
Fiends, as an archetype of monster, actually encloses quite a few different kinds of creature. Devils and demons are the two major types that fall into this category, but it canalso include yugolothsand various other more minor types of fiends.
Really, fiends are an all-encompassing term used to describe creatures that call the lower realms (also sometimes referred to as the “outer” realms in some of the older lore) their home. The Nine Hells, Avernus, the Abyss, etc. are all so-called lower realms. These “fiendish” realms are those of evil incarnate. But, evil comes in all shapes and sizes. Learning what makes a fiend a fiend is the first step to running one or a group of them properly. That way you can better realize when they should appear during your adventures.
9Beings Of Evil
Not So Nice Guys
As members of the planes of evil, demons, devils, and the like don’t take too kindly to acts of positivity, kindness, or good will in general. This seems like an easy thing to run, but in non-combat encounters, it can be hard to run a creature that is solely good or evil.
Keeping in mind that their sole goals are to make evil spread across the plains, you’re able to start the process of understanding how their mentality works. In RP, this would show up as an intense hatred for do-gooders, and an intense aversion to helping others. In combat, healing is probably second or third to just causing damage and sewing chaos as much as possible.
8Know Their Goals
An Evil Agenda
When choosing to add most monsters, whether through RP or combat, it helps to understand what they want to accomplish. Going beyond throwing monsters at your party as fodder is a great way to make your D&D world feel more whole and complimentary to the characters.
Fiends want the evil of their home planes to spread. Knowing that, it could be as simple as they see your adventuring party as a threat to their agenda, sort of like a hit party. But, you can go beyond that. Scouting parties, adventurers looking for lost relics, even kidnappers are all solid goals for a rogue group of fiends to come across your party.
7Understand Their Power Level
Heavy Hitters
Like so many other archetypes of monster, fiends encompass different types of power levels of creature as well. Some are great for low-level skirmishes, and others should only be saved for end-game fights, even as BBEG’s if you wanted.
Arch-demons,imps, rakshasas, demi-devils, and many other types of fiend can be found throughout the lower planes. Knowing their power levels and inherent abilities is the first step to understanding what to throw at your party. A pit fiend is probably more than enough to keep a mid-level party busy, but throwing some hell-hounds in for good measure can be a high CR for any level.
It can be just as good an idea to start with the level of your party to figure out what fiends to run as it is finding a lore reason for them to be there. From there you’re able to get a chain of command going within your fiend’s party too for extra cohesion.
6Cause Chaos
Light Some Fires
Creatures of other planes,like modronsand fiends, are beholden to the ideas of the plane they are from, because they are pure living embodiments of those ideals.
You should, any time you run a fiend, use them to cause plenty of chaos, as that is something they would be inclined to do. This doesn’t have to be all starting fires and attacking NPCs out of the blue, but it could be. Trying to scheme and undermine the actions of those around them, and even each other, are also valid ideals for a fiend to run with.
5Use Their Hatred
Favored Foes
While many of the enemies your adventuring party faces will have reasons to attack your party, you should search for the reasoning for using a specific monster and see if they would target specific party members over others.
Fiends definitely wouldn’t take kindly to anyone meddling with their affairs, but especially not any paladin or cleric aligned to a good or neutral deity. Focusing your fiends on these party members may seem unfair, but it would make sense considering the mentality of the fiends you are using and considering they are diametrically opposed enemies of one another.
4Push Their Inherent Magic
Spells For All Occasions
Fiends, like many othercreatures of other realms, have inherent magic abilities that they can use from an early age. It can be easy to overlook these mid-combat, but it can make them stand out as enemies quite a bit.
Most of these take the form oflow-level spellsand cantrips that embody the areas they were born in or what demon lord or pit fiend they are aligned with (much like tieflings do with their lineage). But, most also have resistance to fire and aren’t bothered by low-light areas. Use this in your tactics during combat, and they will not only be powerful enemies, but unique ones as well.
3Not All About Combat
A Nuanced Approach
Demons, imps, and devils are all good ideas for opponents in combat, since they like causing so much “hell.” They don’t have to just be the fantasy versions of cannon fodder though.
Fiends can be great NPCs to encounter for your adventuring party. Their goals can be nuanced in an evil way, or even obscure, especially for high-level demons and devils that would be working on levels unseen by most people at first meeting. Meeting a devil at a crossroads, or becoming the unwilling pawn of a demon can be a great way to use their abilities and tone for your campaign without resorting straight to violence.
2Know The Cost
Not Just Silver And Gold
Fiends have an interesting economy back in their home realm. Baubles and trinkets, gold and silver, all mean little to them. So it can be hard to win the favor of a demon or devil with a coin purse.
They do, however, appreciate the inherent cost of a soul. Soul coins, and other ways to capture the essence of a creature, are the main bartering token of those of the hells and similar realms. They are also fond of trading favors, and the special relationship of power that learning a being’s name gives someone over them.
Using this odd economy that fiends align with means anything your party asks of them will definitely cost something. It doesn’t have to be a member’s soul per-se, but it should make them think. This also goes for when your party loots a fiend, especially a high-level one.
Your party owing a fiend a favor can be a great way to add some extra tension to the overarching plot of a game.
1Hesitant Information
Shake On It?
The lifespans of devils and demons are usually far longer than that of normal mortal beings in D&D, with most even living forever unless their souls are destroyed.
With that kind of lifespan comes with a knowledge of decades, if not hundreds of years. This means fiends make great ways to let your party know special information. For a price that is. Put your party through the moral and ethical conundrum of making deals with devils. They may have great information, but learning it won’t be easy, nor would it probably be the full picture.
